And You Thought the Stories out of Fox News Couldn't Get Weirder
A lawsuit recently filed against embattled Fox News alleged that a female supervisor with the network forced black female employees to arm wrestle white female employees, among other acts of racial discrimination.
This new report came courtesy of New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman, who has been the first to report nearly every scoop out of Fox News, starting when sexual harassment accusations began to surface against its now ousted head, Roger Ailes, in the summer of 2016.
According to Sherman, a suit was filed in March 2017 by two Fox News employees, and next week, seven more black Fox News employees will join the suit, which claimed that Fox News comptroller, Judy Slater, "subjected members of Fox's payroll staff to racial insults for years."
The suit also stated that Fox News accounting director, Tammy Efinger, was complicit in the racist behavior. New York obtained a letter addressed to Fox lawyers that said instead of stopping the behavior, Efinger encouraged it by laughing.
The actions of Slater and Efinger were so demeaning and racist, they sound like something that may have happened in 1947, not 2017:
According to the plaintiffs' attorneys, Slater demanded that black employees hold "arm wrestling matches'" with white female employees in her office, just down the hall from Ailes's office on the 2nd floor of Fox headquarters. "Forcing a black woman employee to 'fight' for the amusement and pleasure of her white superiors is horrifying. This highly offensive and humiliating act is reminiscent of Jim Crow era battle royals," the letter says, referring to the practice of paying black men to fight blindfolded at carnivals for white spectators' entertainment. The lawyers argue that Efinger bragged about wanting to "fight" a black employee.
At this point, the culture of discrimination appears to have run so deep, it might be easier to burn the whole place to the ground and start over.
You Might Also Like
